Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez wins AL batting title to cap an MVP-worthy season

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. – On the last day of a prolific season, Yordan Alvarez affirmed his place among baseball’s most complete current hitters.

Alvarez punctuated one of the best all-around offensive seasons in Houston Astros history by becoming the franchise’s third player to win a league batting title. Alvarez won the American League batting title with a .316 average, finishing 10 points ahead of the Rays’ Chandler Simpson, the only other qualified AL player to bat above .300.

Alvarez joined Jose Altuve and Yuli Gurriel as Houston players to capture a batting title. He did so while finishing tied for second in the AL with 42 home runs and second with 106 runs batted in, authoring a legitimate run for a Triple Crown in a season that likely makes him the AL Most Valuable Player favorite and helped lift the Astros to an American League West title clinched on the season’s final day.

The batting title, something Alvarez acknowledged Saturday night through an interpreter is “something that I’ve always really wanted,” only partly captures his dominance this season.

Alvarez led all qualified major-league hitters in batting average, on-base percentage (.432) and slugging percentage (.601). He finished with a 1.033 OPS that was 91 points higher than that of the next-highest qualified major-league hitter, the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong, and 131 points ahead of the next-highest AL hitter, Willson Contreras of the Red Sox.

Alvarez compiled the seventh-best OPS by an Astros player who qualified for a batting title. Jeff Bagwell posted a higher one in three seasons, Lance Berkman twice and Moises Alou once. Alvarez’s home run total matched the fifth-highest in franchise history. Only Bagwell, Berkman and Richard Hidalgo have hit more home runs in a season with the Astros.

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This article originally published at Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez wins AL batting title to cap an MVP-worthy season.